The fundamental goal of historians working in academia, museums, etc., is to gather information and then teach the public about the past and why it matters, or should matter, to their lives. Historians that specialize in historical preservation also preserve documents and landmarks important to past events so those events can be studied by people in the future.
New media can help historians do this in several ways. First, as we increasingly move to a web-centered world, more and more people get their "information" from online sources. Historians by using the web and publishing papers, as well as possibly entire books, on the web with links to audio and visual material people will, hopefully, get the right information about historical events. New media can also help historians accomplish the goal of preservation by allowing certain historical documents that are in danger of complete disintigration or destruction, to be preserved, with the added bonus of new media being a setting that allows more people to access those records.
Posted by Chris at August 30, 2004 07:10 PM